Origin: Isle of Mull (Scozia)
Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Strength: 57%ABV
Ageing cask: Ex-Bourbon
Chillfiltered: No
Added coloring: No
Owner: Chorlton Whisky
Average price: € 78,00
Official website: chorltonwhisky.co.uk
Vote: 90/100
Each bottling of Chorlton Whisky, the result of the experience and extraordinary taste of its founder David Bennett, is greeted with great warmth, so much so that the bottles (limited in number as they are single cask) vanish in the blink of an eye.
At the end of July this year, in the middle of the pandemic, two bottlings came out: a Lochindaal (soon to be reviewed) and this Ledaig, bottled in 2020, which produced just 197 bottles (needless to say, already sold out). And as always, the label is a miniature painting.
Thanks to David for the generous sample.
Tasting notes
Light gold in the glass.
The nose is unmistakably Ledaig, of dirty, earthy peat, mineral, acrid. There is, however, also a gentler marine breath that makes its way through, with herbaceous and lemony touches that refresh the nose, demonstrating that there is very little that is crude here. Catalan cream, bananas, apricots and cane sugar emerge buoyed by the breeze, with impressions of liquorice and cloves. In the glass it continues to evolve, proving to be multifaceted and iridescent, following different harmonies of the same score. Fantastic!
In the mouth it’s muscular and warm, with a decisive spiciness of cinnamon, cloves and aniseed that accompany the damp and smoky peat with streaks of rough leather and Kentucky tobacco.
Caramelised cane sugar, toasted hazelnuts, wood, fruit (undertones, just a hint of apricots and orange). More compact and consistent than on the nose, but still rich and full-bodied.
The finish is long and spicy, ashy, herbaceous peat, salt, liquorice and caramel.
Ledaig produces a whisky that, personally, I already love very much on its own, but you have to know how to choose the casks, and David has an unbeatable nose (and taste) for this. A complex, layered whisky, for those who love peat but not necessarily all peat whiskies, since it fully reflects the soul of the distillery from which it comes, divisive even among those who love the genre.